Copper was ready to go the next day, his aura had taken care of his burns and a new uniform had been acquired from the quartermaster of the ship. We started our day in the warehouse at the docks. Well I say warehouse but it was actually only a part of the warehouse. Crates were stacked high around us denying anything more than single combat, this gave Copper an advantage as he excelled in close quarter.
After we had warmed up, we began our duels elimination style. Copper and I started. He decided against using his dust, but still dismantled me in the tight quarters of the warehouse. I was eliminated and forced to observe the other until it was my turn again.
Ciel stepped in to fight Copper. However, before they could engage I ordered Copper to not use his sword. Their fight commenced. Ciel clearly had the upper hand in the dust department, and Copper struggled to achieve the same serenity as Ciel. Copper realized this, and pressed his attack to close with Ciel. In close quarters Copper reigned supreme. After a quick exchange of kicks and punches loaded with the power of dust, Copper managed to put Ciel in a lock.
A battle of wills ensued, the two infused pushed against each other's aura. Sparks and flames flew out of the two fighters. It ended when Ciel's superior control overwhelmed the stranglehold of Copper. Her electricity shot through Copper's body and Ciel emerged victorious.
Penny was the next contestant. She faced Ciel after Ciel had eliminated Copper from our duels. Penny used her swords magnificently, both to redirect current into the ground using the cables as conductors for the electricity being emitted by the infused girl, but also as an offensive tool stabbing and slicing Ciel.
This was our training regime for most of our mornings the winner of the match would face the next one in line. Penny managed to build up the longest streak, due to her synthetic stamina and skill. I on the other hand never had a streak above one. Only beating my teammates when they had exhausted themselves after a couple of rounds.
After we had gone in rounds and everyone had faced everyone, we moved to more specific exercises. I drilled Ciel in the basics of hand to hand combat, while Copper began meditating to exercise his control of his aura. Penny sat down on one of the crates and began texting on her scroll.
As I had remarked in our little outing with Jaune, Ciel really had little experience in close quarters, her only power being that of her immaculate control of dust. We started out with some basic blocks. I would show her the moves, and she would repeat them until I was satisfied. To further ingrain them into her memory, we did some practical examples where I would attack her, and she would block.
We neared our end of our training session. Ciel had gotten the basics down quite admirably, managing to block attacks on the fly as I delivered them.
"Can I try something Sir?" She asked. "I you could attack me once more." I did as she asked, and as I hit her block with a right hook it felt like I just hit an electric fence. My hand flew of her, and I realized that she had sent her electricity into her block transferring it into me.
"Great idea." I said as I recovered from the shock. "I am glad you have taken a proactive look at your fighting style." After finishing up with Ciel, I walked over to Copper still nested in mediation, trying to perfect his flames. The flame was completely blue, a testament to the concentration he was in.
Ciel moved up besides me. "It seems he is ready for the next step in his training." I nodded and she moved up to Copper and rested a hand on his head. Copper only reaction was his flame flickering a short second as his concentration took a hit. "You heard us." Ciel asked the meditating fire boy.
"Are you ready for the next step in your training?" Ciel asked as she stod there with her hand on his head. He answered with a short nod but this was not enough for Ciel. "Say it. This is the first step for your training." The flame lost some of its blue shine, but Copper managed to stammer forward a reply. "I am ready." His voice sounded almost metallic, just like Ciel's.
Without further ado, she sent a small burst of lightning down into the meditating Copper. Copper squirmed and lost control of the flame, the color rapidly changing from the blue shine to the red color of an impure flame.
"Again." Ciel ordered, still resting her hand on his head. With a short sound of protest, he returned to his meditation. The flame achieved its blue color shortly after, much faster than he had done in the sickbay yesterday.
Their meditation continued, Ciel continued to bring Copper out of his serene state and he began using more time on his initial meditation. "I know it is frustrating." Ciel said as she coerced him into another round of her unyielding exercise. "You need complete control so that any feelings never impact you during battle, and this is only achieved by unyielding exercise."
We were interrupted by the door to the warehouse opening. This revealed General Ironwood. Copper tried to get up from his position. However, he was stopped by Ciel forcing him onwards in his exercise.
Penny and I moved up and greeted the General with a salute.
"How are you holding up?" He asked after acknowledging our salute.
"We are a little constrained in space, but we are making do." I answered.
"Good. Corporal please follow me outside." He ordered and turned around, automatically expecting my compliance.
The warehouse was on the edge of the harbor, so as I stepped out I felt the full force of the ocean winds. The harbor was a bleak location, the uniform concrete building giving little color to the area. The monotony was only broken by ships from the other kingdoms being unloaded at the warehouses.
"You have a green light for the mission." He said as he stared out over the ocean.
"Did you manage to dig up any information sir?" I asked.
He brought up a picture of three people. "We managed to dig this picture out of the scroll." He pointed to a huge man talking to two smaller women. "This man is Junior, the owner of the club. His official record says that he has an education from Signal. However you should not underestimate him."
He moved his finger over to the two young women. They were dressed in skirts, one white and one red. They were covered in makeup, and wore strapless battle skirts. The white one wore high heels, clearly spotted with blades, while the other had clawed gloves. "This is the Malachite twins, they are mercenaries hired by junior to guard his club. They pack more of a punch than normal thugs do, but I think you squad will be more than adequate. They have had a past in other mercenary work, but nothing that has drawn the attention of Atlas."
He put away the picture. "He also has a number of thugs, but they should in no way be a problem."
"Thank you Sir."
"When are you moving on the club?"
"Next day off, Penny is doing something with team RWBY, so we have free hands."
"Good." He said as an acknowledgment of my plan before he changed subjects. "I have the police rapport of the Tukson murder." He handed me a file branded Vale police. "Admirable job, you covered your tracks expertly. I feel that you will have a future in special operatives if you continue this way."
"Thank you sir." I said and saluted him.
The next couple of days where used for training. We did not have access to the recreational facilities at Beacon, and Penny, who was the one who usually the one inciting that we should take a pause, was stunted as she could not set anything up with her friends at Beacon.
Copper quickly got the hang of the meditation together with Ciel and moved on to doing simple exercises while maintaining concentration. During our morning training he would keep a flame going as we set on our run along the docks, and after our usual bout he would do the moves drilled into us at boot camp together with Ciel while still maintaining his flame.
The day came for the mission. After our morning training Penny left to meet team RWBY in the city. Ciel, Copper and I readied ourselves for our mission.
Copper strapped on a couple of grenades, while Ciel readied three auto injectors of dust. One of fire for Copper, and two of lightning for her. Her reasoning being that she had more control of her powers than Copper, and therefore could take a bigger dose.
I cleaned my rifle, readying it for the mission. I really needed to give it a name. A couple of names had surfaced in my mind during my training with it. "Destructor", "Punisher" or maybe even "The law" but nothing had really fitted to what I wanted.
Juniors club was in a warehouse in the less reputable part of town, close to the docks. Therefore, we only had a short walk to the club. The huge cargo doors into the club where closed as we arrived, but I did not falter and went up and knocked hard on the metal doors.
"We are closed." I heard from behind the doors.
I started out diplomatic. "We are here to talk to your boss." I bellowed to the person behind the door.
"He would have told me of any meetings today, come back later."
"I insist."
"Piss off." He answered rather aggressively, obviously annoyed by our nagging.
I motioned Copper forward towards the door. Copper immediately covered his arms in the blue fire of our training, his face a solid mask revealing no emotion. A blue ball of fire spewed forwards from the fire infused sending molten metal bursting into the club and creating a hole in the door. Ciel and Copper moved in first and cleared a path before me. The club was covered in the red and black colors that could be trademarked back to Junior. The center of the club was dominated by the dance floor, and all around there was a walkway that had booths situated at tactical spots. The whole room was lit up by glaring spotlights and crazy disco lightning from the floor.
As soon as we entered we were assaulted by multiple thugs, Copper and Ciel immediately moved to intercept them. Ciel used her lightning to mow down swats of the attacking thugs, her incredible control taking care of anyone taking aim at us. Copper began juggling his grenades, throwing them at groups of thugs entrenched in the booths, where after he engaged the demoralized groups with his sword in one hand and blue flames covering the other.
I stood and waited for Junior to arrive, and as the last of the thugs had been beaten into submission, he stepped out from the back room. He had already brandished his giant rocket launcher, and I saw the Malachite twins form up behind him.
"You have my attention, why should I not blow you to pieces this second?"
"Junior I presume?" I asked rhetorically. "I am here because one of your associates has been killed." I brought up a picture of the battered Tukson, which I had pilfered from the police report given to me by Ironwood. "He knew something, something he knew he could killed for. So he contacted you, Junior."
"Fuck off, I know nothing."
"Oh but I think you do." I drew my weapon and in one motion, I fired at the two twins standing beside him. "Restrain him." I ordered, and the club descended into battle once again.
The Malachite twins did not take much damage from my shots. They left the side of Junior, and engaged Copper and Ciel in single combat. Junior fired a rocket at me, and I rolled out of the way, and fired a couple of shots at the huge man. He changed his rocket launcher into a club, and blocked my shots. I changed to burst fire, intent on overwhelming the defense of the bar manager with a hail of bullets.
Junior charged me and I changed my rifle to a sword. He initiated with a downward smash, which I handily avoided with a short step to the side. Before he could retract his attack, I delivered a stab to his chest. His aura deflected it, but not before I had delivered a menacing scar down his side.
He took up his club and delivered a sideways swipe. I brought up my sword to block, but I was still sent flying by the force of the hit. I collided with one of the booth tables. Due to my aura and armor I received little damage from the collision. From my positon in the booth I aimed my rifle and emptied it at the enclosing barman. He blocked most of the bullets, but the ones that hit staggered the huge man.
Before he could close the distance he was blown back by the lightning emanating from the fight between Ciel and the red malachite twin. Ciel was glowing, her robotic expression fixated on her face as she sent bolts of lightning at everyone around her. Ciel's clothing was torn and down the side of her face there was claw marks. She had probably evaluated that she was losing and had decided to draw her trump card. At her feet, I saw the spent cartridge of an auto injector.
The small respite in fighting gave me opening to evaluate our fight. From my scroll nested at my belt I saw that Ciel had about half her aura left, and Copper had only lost a little more than a quarter. I was the best of, but I had only just entered the fight. Copper was doing a quite an admirable job taking down the entire club in his quest to kill the white clad malachite twin. Every flammable thing in his side of the club was burning. He had used his flames, now red, to herd the white clad twin into a corner, and with a last show of fiery power he sent a ball of fire into the white clad girl.
After reloading my gun, I shot down one of the spotlights in the celling. I grabbed the cable that was torn down by the weight of the spotlight, and walked over to the incapacitated barman. He had been thrown straight across the dancefloor and collided with the DJ booth. The force of the impact had knocked the pin out of the record and it was now stuttering. I put a hole through a red foam bear head. The man got the idea and popped out from his cover to lift the pin of the record. Junior had passed out from aura depletion so I tied him up to one of the supporting beams holding up the booth.
Ciel and Copper joined me in front of the downed barman. Copper looked unwell as he walked towards me. "Sir, requesting permission to leave and get some fresh air." He asked.
"Permission granted soldier, you did a great job." He turned away from me and left the club. Ciel watched him leave.
"He seemed uncomfortable." She remarked as Copper had left.
I agreed, offering no further thought to the positon of my teammate, and turned towards the restrained Junior and slapped him awake.
"Ready to answer some questions Junior?"
"Bastard."
"I take that as I no." I said as I smashed down on his knees, shattering his kneecap.
"What do you want to know?" He stammered out after composing himself after my violent retort.
"I want to know why Tukson died."
"I do not know." He answered
"Wrong answer Junior." I said and moved to smash his other knee.
"He wanted to tell on the White Fang." He blurted out before I could continue.
"Good job Junior, now for something more interesting, what had he revealed?"
"He had planned to tell the Vale police of some dust transports the White Fang were planning on hitting."
"Wrong answer again." I said and smashed my foot into his knee. Junior had tried to test the waters, what information could he leak that would make us go away that was not too sensitive.
"You are really bad at this, now, what did he reveal?" I continued
Junior was panting. "He…He planned to reveal an attack on the Vytal tournament."
"Good Junior, but he knew more, what was it?"
"If you already know, why are you asking me?"
I kicked his elbow, bending his arms the wrong way. "I am the one asking the question."
"They were operating out of Mountain Glenn. Please let me go." He pleaded.
"Not so fast Junior, what are they doing there?"
"I do not know. My only task is to report defectors. So please, will you let me go?"
"We have an agreement Junior." I answered and knocked him unconscious with a well-placed boot to the side of his head.
"Should we kill him?" Ciel asked from behind me.
"No we should not. If we build up a reputation of killing the people we interrogate, there will be no reward for telling the truth, and so it will get progressively harder to interrogate people."
"But he could jeopardize the mission if he told on us."
"Yes, but then we would also have to kill everyone here. This would draw an attention of the police we do not want."
"I do not like dying." I heard a shaky voice from the DJ booth.
"That is a sentiment I share." I answered and motioned for Ciel to follow me outside.
As we turned towards the door, and I cursed myself. In walked Yang, Ruby, and Penny. Behind them Copper slowly stammered in, looking at me with a worried expression. Ruby looked horrified at the damage that was caused to the club. However, as she neared one of the bodies, she seemed to come to some kind of realization, which calmed her down. Yang looked positively impressed.
"Wow, it seems you really had a party in here." She said as she stepped over the bodies of henchmen to close Ciel and me. "I am disappointed in you guys, you did not invite me." She continued, faking a distraught voice.
"We did not know you would be interested." I answered.
"I have kicked my fair share of Junior ass, and Ruby here has also done her part. She kicked the ass of a group of his henchmen robbing a dust store." Yang proudly stated.
That explained her relaxed composure I thought to myself, team RWBY seems more special than I first thought. I will need to compose a file on them, they seem to be more than normal students.
"Why are you here?" I asked and walked up to them. Ruby had taken a gun from one of the henchmen and was pulling it apart.
"Why are you here?" Yang retorted, both Penny and Ruby staying silent. Yang had obviously taken charge as the talker. The others would probably have screwed it up.
"We are investigating what happened at the docks, and we were told that Junior here." I pointed backwards at the man leaning unconscious on one of the poles holding the DJ booth, his wounds not apparent from a distance. "Could provide information."
While not completely the truth, it would present a good enough reason for them to reveal theirs. I knew I hit dust when Penny locked positively ecstatic at my words. "See." She said. "We should have included them in our plans."
"Penny…" Ruby said as she tried to stifle the sound of the eager robot.
"No." The robot girl said. "I trust Cobalt and I think we should let him into the mission."
Ruby looked suspiciously in my direction. She probably harbored some distrust for me because of my team's unfortunate exit of Beacon. No matter.
Yang considered Penny's words and looked at Ruby. Before Ruby could take charge and deliver a decision her scroll rang. She picked up the call, and after a short second of listening she hanged up. "Yang, Penny, Blake needs us." They began running for the exit, and we followed them outside.
They had arrived on a motorcycle with a sidecar. Penny got into the sidecar, and Yang and Ruby sat down together on the motorcycle. Before they could drive away, Sun and Blake followed by an Atlesian paladin speed down main the street running down the side of the club. Yang revved her bike and speed after them.
"Can one you take that thing down. We do not want to let it get out on the highway." I asked Copper and Ciel.
"Yes." Ciel answered and brought up another auto injector. She lifted up her skirt and inserted it into her tight. Glowing veins grew out of the insertion hole and as they grew, her hair began standing up, which told of the amount of energy manifesting in the girl. Ciel gathered the power in her arms, and after focusing her power for a short while, she brought her arms forward.
The first couple of seconds nothing happened. Copper was about to say something stupid, but his remark was stopped by a massive lightning bolt exploding out of Ciel. It instantly hit the Atlesian mech, which collapsed after its dust computing had been blown out. Ciel staggered and fainted. Before she hit the ground, I grabbed her and slowly lowered her down on the street.
I ordered Copper to stay and watch over her, and ran towards the downed paladin. The ones one the bike and the ones being chased had already gathered around the Paladin when the hatch to the pilot's compartment flew open. Roman Torchwick stepped out, a little singed from his meeting with Ciel's lightning. He raised up his hands in surrender to the group of hunters in training surrounding him. Blake moved up to restrain him, but as she closed he swung his cane around, and fired high explosive shots at everyone in the vicinity. They were blown back, and the ice-cream colored girl from my first encounter with the White Fang jumped in to help her leader.
I sprinted past my allies and slammed into Torchwick before his ally could pull any of her teleporting shit. However, as I smashed into Torchwick I felt the world around me warp and change color. I was suddenly in a bullhead, and I felt the engines readying up for flight. I smashed my face into Romans and rolled away from where I knew ice cream girl was standing before the door to cockpit. Inside the cockpit I saw the side of a black haired woman. Down her sleeve, I could see there was an intricate pattern reminiscing of the pattern on Copper, just not as feral and strong.
"Roman, what have…" Before the black haired woman could finish speaking, I fired at her and the ice cream girl with my rifle. My bullets did little to the two women, but I hit my intended target that was the control stick. The black haired woman lost control of the bullhead and it began spiraling downwards. The ice cream colored girl attacked me with a fast kick. I changed my rifle into a sword and took a defensive stance. Her kicks were now met with steel, so she drew her rapier from the inside of her parasol and engaged me in sword combat.
Roman began recovering from my head-butt. I had to do something drastic to turn this situation. Therefore I charged the ice-cream colored girl. She jumped over my attack and delivered a stab to my side. Unfazed by the pain I collided with Roman and sent him flying out of the open bullhead door. I positioned Roman below me as we fell towards the ground, hoping that this would decrease the damage to me.
The impact with the ground brought with it the sweet embrace of darkness, as my body gave up its consciousness.
AN: To my recent reviewer. Thank you for your feedback, your concern has been noted and I have taken steps to avoid making this seem like one of "those stories."